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Belfast City Council has been recognised for making the ‘most improvement’ in their recycling performance out of councils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, by the environmental consultancy Eunomia’s ‘Recycling Carbon Index 2016/2017’.

They joined Northamptonshire County Council as ‘Most Improved’ in the league table, prepared by Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd, which calculates the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are prevented as a result of local residents’ recycling efforts.

According to the findings, the city is saving a total of 80kg of CO2 per person – an improvement of 18kg from the year before - moving from the ‘Mid Performer’ to the ‘Good Performer’ rating of the Index.

Councillor Kate Nicholl, Chair of Belfast City Council’s People and Communities Committee, said: “This is great news for Belfast. One of the main reasons our carbon dioxide emissions reduced so much during this period was the fantastic response of our residents to the council’s ‘No Food Waste in Black Bins’ campaign.

"Residents began recycling more items and composting all their food waste instead of sending it to landfill or incineration in their black bins – all leading to a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Eunomia Director Joe Papineschi, who advises councils on how to improve their recycling systems, said: “I’d like to congratulate Belfast and their residents on the impressive way in which they’ve leapt up the league table. Recycling has an important contribution to make to the UK’s efforts on climate change, and just looking at recycling rates doesn’t tell you the whole story.

"Our Recycling Carbon Index helps authorities to see the types of recycling that have the greatest impact, and to identify new opportunities as well as highlighting successes so far. It also helps the public understand the reasons why recycling is so important.”